Jordan Bates: Year 1
by whitehousej21
Summary: Join Jordan as his world is changed forever. How will he do on his adventure through the wizarding world? Will he be able to make friends and come to peace with the death of his family? Takes place during book 1 of the Harry Potter series. Will be mostly canon. Not your normal SI! First Author's Note explains more.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone. I have wanted to write this story for quite some time now, but never quite had the motivation to actually sit down and do it. But at last I have decided to take a stab at it. Now a few things about the story. I will keep it mostly canon, however it only makes sense that if you throw an OC into the mix then things will change eventually. I am not sure what things will change and it wont be more noticeable until the later books. My OC's main purpose will not be to bring down Old Voldy; that is Harry's job. This isn't an SI where my OC just joins Harry and friends. At first he will have very little to do with Harry, however eventually we will see more of the trio. My OC will have his own challenges and story that happen to take place alongside Harry's. Lastly, the first chapter might be a bit boring because I don't want to just throw my OC into the story and completely copy the books; so please bear with me as I build my character. Now enough of my rambling, on with the show. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer -**

 **I do not own anything Harry Potter. All ideas, characters, places, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – I'm a What Now?**

Hello, my name is Jordan Bates and this is my recollection of how I, an eleven-year-old with no family, had my world flipped upside down, rebuilt around me, and then burned to the ground. It all started 7 years ago:

 _July 15th, 1991_

 _Keilberg Foster Home For Children, Boston, Massachusetts_

I was sitting in my bed reading when there was a soft knock on my door.

"Jordan, you have a visitor" Ms. Keilberg called a she swung my door open.

Assuming I had heard her wrong I merely replied, "Mhm" and continued to read. It wasn't until I heard a polite cough that I finally tore my eyes away from my story.

A tall, thin man who looked to be over a hundred years old was smiling at me from my desk chair. His silvery hair and beard were both long enough to be tucked into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken a few times.

"Hello, Jordan" he said to me.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"I am a professor at a school. A school made just for children like yourself" he responded.

"You mean kids with no family?" I asked him, getting annoyed. He wasn't the first person they had sent to try and talk to me. Even from a young age I was always a quiet kid, an observer. They thought there was something wrong me, but I just didn't want to talk to anyone.

"Oh no. It's a school made for people like you and I that have extraordinary abilities that normal people don't" he replied kindly.

"Abilities?" I questioned.

"Oh yes. Tell me, Jordan, have you ever done anything strange, anything abnormal? Anything that you couldn't explain when you were scared or excited?" He wondered.

I almost immediately replied 'no', but then I stopped myself. There were a few things that I have done in the past that surprised me, but nobody knew anything about that. How could he possibly know this?

He gave me a knowing look, but said nothing. Clearly he was waiting for me to respond.

"Yah, you could say that" I said.

Nodding his head, he reached into the pocket of his robe and pulled out a letter. He then handed it to me and waited. Looking down at it, it had my name and address on the front. On the back there was a red wax seal keeping the letter closed. Looking more closely at it I realized it was in the shape of a crest like they used to have at castles. It was a big letter H surrounded by a badger, snake, lion, and eagle.

I broke the seal and pulled the letter out. In neat cursive writing it read:

 _Dear Mr. Bates,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl no later than 31 July._

Underneath was another piece of parchment paper with a list of things I would need like a wand, an owl/toad, and eight books. One book called 'The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection' caught my attention.

"Witchcraft?" I mumbled aloud.

"And wizardry" the man finished for me. I looked at him incredulously.

"You mean that I'm a wizard? And you want me to go to this school to learn magic tricks?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Indeed. However you will learn about much more than just magic tricks at Hogwarts. You see, at Hogwarts we don't teach the kind of magic your used to. You wont be taught how to pull rabbits out of hats or how to escape from a box" he mused.

I wasn't quite sure what to say, so I sat there in stunned silence and waited for him to say something.

After a few moments he got up from the chair and said, "I will give you a week to think about it. Should you choose to accept and attend Hogwarts this coming fall, I will meet you outside in exactly one week".

* * *

I'd like to say that I spent all seven of those days heavily weighing what I was told. It sounded absolutely mad, but made so much sense. It made my head spin for the rest of the day. However, by midday the following day I had already made up my mind. Anything beat living in this orphanage for the next 7 years. After all, I had no family and no friends. I tended to ignore others and stuck to my books. They gave me an escape from life that I couldn't get anywhere else.

Exactly one week after he had left I was standing out on the corner in the middle of a humid summer day. I wasn't quite sure what to look for, or even what to expect, but the longer I stood out there the more I felt like an idiot. What was I expecting? Him to just walk up to me from seemingly nowhere and just disappear to some magical place with him?

"Beautiful day, huh?" a voice behind me said, making me jump and spin around.

The same man from a week ago stood there wearing the exact same outfit, looking down at me expectantly.

"Hello professor..." I said, trailing off at the end.

"Dumbledore, but I insist that you just call me Albus" he responded.

"Right. So where are we going?" I asked.

"London" he replied simply as he held out his arm, as if asking me to hold on.

Shrugging, I took hold of his arm. What happened next can only be described as uncomfortable. Suddenly I felt like I was spinning and being crammed through a tiny tube. Almost as quickly as it started, it suddenly stopped. I stumbled a little bit, but managed to catch myself before I fell. Dizzy and disorientated, I bent over slightly and leaned on my own knees for support. After a few moments of fighting to keep my lunch down, I managed to straighten and take in my surroundings.

We were standing in a dark, warm pub. A few people were seated at tables eating various kinds of foods and reading newspapers. From the light being cast by the fireplace, I swear it looked like the pictures in the newspaper were moving.

"What just happened?" I asked Dumbledore.

"Ah yes, I am sorry Jordan. Forgive me, but my old mind makes me forget sometimes. I should have explained before hand, but we just apparated. It is a form of travel wizards use in order to travel great distances very quickly" he explained to me. "This is The Leaky Cauldron. We use it as a gateway to the magical world".

He began to walk towards the back of the pub where he opened a door, ushered me in, and closed it behind us. He then approached the brick wall on the other side of the small room, tapped three bricks, and stepped back. For a moment nothing happened, but right as I was about to say something to him the wall began to split apart in the middle and fold to the sides. After a few moments we were able to walk through into a street and my jaw dropped.

Lining both sides of the street were a bunch of different shops, with families dressed in robes like Dumbledore mingling about. The street was so busy in fact that it reminded me of Faneuil Hall in Boston.

"Whoa" I breathed to myself.

"It is indeed quite impressive" Dumbledore said. He was watching me closely, as if he was afraid I might just turn and run.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Welcome Jordan, to Diagon Alley" he replied with a smile and a sweep of his arm.

As we walked down the street I peered into the different shops and was amazed at what I saw. There was a shop to buy books, wands, robes, regular clothes, and even owls! I felt right at home in the hustle and bustle of the alley as we weaved through families. I wasn't really sure where we were headed until we came up to a big white building at the end of the alley. At the top in gold letters a sign read 'Gringotts'. We walked up the white marble stairs and passed through the bronze framed doors into a small hallway. A set of silver doors was located at the end of the short hallway, on them were the words:

 _Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
So if you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there. _

The other side of the doors was a sight that simply took my breath away. The inside of this place was huge! The walls were ornately adorned with paintings and gold and were roughly three stories high. Hanging from the ceiling was a massive chandelier that looked suspiciously like it was made of diamonds. Along both walls was a counter that ran the entire length of the room. At the counter hundreds of, wait a minute, what are those?!

Short, fair skinned creatures with long fingers, pointed ears and nose, and domed heads sat at the counter studiously scribbling on parchment.

"Umm professor, what are those?" I asked curiously.

"Goblins, Jordan. They have protected the secrets of the wizarding bank for centuries. They are devilishly tricky, best you tick close" Dumbledore replied.

Swallowing hard, I followed him up to the counter where a bald Goblin asked, "How can I help you today?".

"Ah yes, Mr. Bates here would like to enter his vault" Dumbledore replied.

Nodding, the goblin got down from his stool and walked out from behind the counter and lead us to the other end of the hall. The goblin held a door open that lead to a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. He whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them.

After carefully climbing in, the cart speed off down the tracks for quite some time. It was like a maze of corridors down here and no matter how hard I tried to remember every turn and fork in the path there were just too many. What surprised me the most was that there was no steering wheel on this cart. It was driving itself!

After a few minutes, the cart came to a stop at the end of one of the passageways. We were in a sort of room, if you will, with the track in the center and on both sides was a platform to get off the cart. There were four massive metal doors that looked to be made of gears on both sides of the track.

We followed the goblin onto the platform and walked to the last door on the left.

"Key please" the goblin asked me.

Not knowing what to do, I turned and looked at Dumbledore for help.

He reached around in his robes for a moment before he pulled out a rather large silver key. The goblin took the key and opened up a small hatch that had about a dozen different sized key holes. He inserted the key into the second largest one and turned the key. All the gears on the door began to move as it slowly swung open. My heart beat sped up as I anticipated what was on the other side.

Dumbledore has said that this was my families vault, but I didn't have family members that I knew about. I'd have to ask him about that later on.

When the door finally opened my jaw definitely hit the floor. There was an ornate red carpet in the middle of the vault running from the entrance to the back wall. On both sides of the carpet were tables littered with gold, silver, and bronze coins, goblets, cups, bowls, and other sorts of items. Directly at the end of the carpet sat a table in the middle of the room. On it rested a bunch of moving portraits of people I didn't recognize. It took me a moment to grasp that yes the pictures were indeed moving but I thought 'Hey, im about a hundred miles underground in what is apparently my non-existent family's vault that is filled with piles of gold. So naturally pictures move'.

Shaking the craziness of the situation from my mind, one portrait caught my eye. It was a picture of a beautiful woman with golden blonde hair and brown eyes standing with a man about her age with short dark hair and startlingly blue eyes. In the woman's arms was a baby wrapped in blankets who was smiling delightfully at the camera. Underneath it a plaque read in fancy golden script, 'Demi and Lucas Bates, holding their newborn son Jordan'.

Tears started to form in the corners of my eyes as I picked the portrait up and studied it. I laughed quietly to myself when I realized I looked just like my father, except that I have my mom's blonde hair.

"I had never seen your mother and father so happy as they were the day you were born" Dumbledore said to me. Turning, I saw that he had been watching me from the entrance to my family's vault.

Choking on my words, I managed to ask quietly, "You knew my parents?".

"Oh yes. I daresay I was there headmaster when they were at Hogwarts. Your father Lucas was one of the brightest students I knew, he had such a thirst for knowledge. And Demi, my she was a free spirit. Not intelligent as your father, but certainly close to top of her year, she was always making people laugh or cheering people up. The only time I ever witnessed her sad was on the day your father was killed. Tore he up really. You were only a newborn then" Dumbledore recounted sadly.

"What happened to them?" I pleaded. Never before had I been this close to answers.

"Your father was killed in a battle during the war, protecting muggles from death eaters. Upon his death your mother sent you away to America, to get you away from all the blood shed. She died just a few weeks later during a raid on the ministry" Dumbledore answered. Though his voice remained calm, his eyes reflected the sadness of the story.

"War? Death Eaters? Muggles? I don't know what you mean" I responded, annoyed that there was still so much I didn't know.

"I will explain later, my boy. For now there are a few money pouches just over there. Fill them, I am unsure of when you will be able to return". Dumbledore pointed to the pouches and then the coins that littered the tables. He then stepped out of my vault and waited for me by the cart.

I quickly grabbed a few pouches and began filling them each with as many coins as they could hold. As I turned to leave the vault, I paused before returning to the table with the portraits. Grabbing the photo of my parents and I, I quickly exited the vault and headed to the cart.

* * *

Dumbledore walked me from store to store, making sure that I bought everything I would need. I asked him questions here and there. Some about the war, others about my parents, but mostly about things like quidditch and what Hogwarts is like. He answered most of my questions, though he was mostly very vague.

I really wanted to purchase a broom, but I guess I can't have one as a first year. The second to last store we visited was the book store. I first grabbed all the books for my classes before I looked around for a couple books to read in my spare time. I grabbed a copy of 'Hogwarts, A History', a book that I hoped would contain everything I needed to know about the school, a second book called 'Two Devastating Wizarding Wars', a book that described Gellert Grindelwald's Uprising and The Terrible Wizarding War, and a third book called 'Magical Family's and Their Lineages'. With the last book I had hoped to learn if I maybe had any cousins or extended family still alive.

Finally, we made a stop at Ollivanders. I was so excited to get my wand that I was practically bouncing with anticipation while I waited for the shopkeeper to appear with my wand.

"Here you go" he said to me as he opened a small rectangular box, "try this one out".

He handed me a thin, round stick which I took firmly in my hand. I stood there for a moment, not sure what to do.

"Well give it a wave" he said to me impatiently.

I gave it a quick flick, which ended up blowing up a flower pot in the corner of the room.

"Oh dear, definitely not" he said. He snatched the wand out of my hand and disappeared back into the shelves of wands. After trying out several more wands that ended in me blasting the windows of the shop out, giving him an unwanted haircut, setting my shirt on fire, and launching several hundred boxes from their shelves onto the floor; he finally pulled a wand out of a bright green box.

"Try this one. Eleven inches long, made of Pine, with a dragon heartstring core" he said as he handed me the wand.

The wand's handle felt perfect in my hand, wasn't very light like most of the wands I had already tried, but also wasn't heavy at all. A feeling of understanding washed over me as if I understood this wands feelings, and it mine. Giving it a quick wave, I somehow repaired the flower pot that I had originally shattered. Smiling to myself, I looked to Ollivander who was packing up all the other wands I had tried.

"That will be eight galleons young man" he said to me.

I paid the man, and then joined Dumbledore outside the shop.

"All set?" he asked me.

"Actually no, I wanted to get an owl as well" I said.

He nodded, and lead me towards the pet shop. Upon entering I looked around at the different owls. I wondered if picking an owl was slightly like picking a wand because most of the owls seemed to completely ignore me. All except one owl who was sitting in the far back corner of the shop. As I walked past him he hooted excitedly at me. He had jet black feathers except for around his neck and face, where they were slightly more brown than black. I reached out to pet him through the cage on the top of his head. He hooted happily, so with a smile on my face I paid the shop keeper for the owl and rejoined Dumbledore outside.

"Now that you have everything, you are going to stay here at the Leaky Cauldron until I send someone to collect you and bring you to where you will board the train to Hogwarts" Dumbledore informed me as we made our way back into the Leaky Cauldron. I paid the bartender, Tom, for the room and Dumbledore helped me lug my new purchases to my room.

"What about my stuff I left at the orphanage?" I asked.

"You will find that most of your belongings are waiting for you in your room" he responded.

When we reached my room Dumbledore looked at me sadly and said, "Well it has been fun Jordan. I shall send someone to fetch you when it is time. In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt if you started reading some of your books. And please don't leave the Cauldron or Diagon Alley".

"You got it professor. And thank you. For everything" I replied, holding out my hand.

With a smile, he took my hand, gave it a quick shake and then apparated on the spot. Signing to myself, I opened the door and got settled into my new home for the next month and a half.

* * *

Over the course of the next month, I read all of my books front to back. 'Hogwarts, A History' hadn't been as insightful as I had wanted it to be, but I at least knew what to expect. After learning about the last two wizarding wars, I finally began to grasp just how dangerous magic could be. To think, there is actually a branch of magic dedicated to the 'dark arts'.

I also learned from 'Magical Family's and Their Lineages' that I come from a very old and once powerful line of wizards. Unfortunately I was unable to identify any close relatives except for a distant connection to a family known as the Malfoy's. Apparently, they have a son my age who is considered my sixth cousin. Also included in the book was a thorough description of the different 'social classes' of wizards. The idea of pure-bloods being superior and on top, half-bloods in the middle, and muggle-born or 'mudbloods' at the bottom made me sick. I guess that pure-bloods thought that their magic was stronger and made them superior to everyone else. Despite my family's heritage labeling me as a pure-blood I would make sure to avoid anyone who thought pure-bloods are better.

After I read those books, I studied up on my books for school. While most of the books seemed to contain generally the basics, I am determined to learn everything I can and look forward to moving on to more advanced material.

After weeks of boredom, since I finished all my books after just a month, the night before I was to board the train to Hogwarts finally arrived. Filled with excitement and anticipation I dreamed of performing all kinds of magic and going on many adventures.

* * *

 **I know it's kind of short, but I felt that that was a good stopping point for the first chapter. I had originally had a lot more written, but I cut a lot of it out because most of it was just narrating and not much dialog or actual story telling. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the first part to my story. It may be a while before I update. I want to get a lot of this written and planned out so that I can get ahead and update regularly. Thank you for your patience. See you all soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Welcome back everyone to the second installment of Jordan Bates' first year at Hogwarts. This chapter will be quite a bit longer than the last chapter, so hopefully that makes up for how long it took me to update. Also, in order to speed up the process of getting this chapter out, I may have taken a few lines from the books for the train ride and sorting. Sorry. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer -**

 **I do not own anything Harry Potter. All ideas, characters, places, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling**

* * *

On the morning of September 1st, I woke up rather early and packed all of my things into my trunk as neatly as I could. Having bought a few new books for some light reading a few days ago, I kept one tucked underneath my arm as a I dragged my trunk and owl down to the dining area of The Leaky Cauldron. I finally reached the bottom of the stairs, not all that gracefully I might add, and sat in the corner by the fireplace.

Kyro, my new owl, was hooting madly for having been woken up so early. Ignoring him, I ordered some soup and tea from Tom and waited for my breakfast. As I sat there and ate I considered which house I would want to be in.

Gryffindor is the home of the brave, but I don't think hiding away in books is considered all that brave. Hufflepuff is home of the loyal, and while I might make many great friends there, I have never been socially outgoing. I could definitely eliminate those two possibilities.

On the other hand though, Ravenclaw is the home of the intelligent. I could definitely use friends like that if I want to master all aspects of magic. While Slytherin is home of the ambitious, I wasn't very cunning or sneaky and doubted I would fit in there.

I continued to go over each house in my mind until suddenly green flames erupted from the fireplace and out stepped a rather severe-looking witch wearing square shaped glasses and a green cloak. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun underneath her large pointed hat.

She noticed me in the corner and quickly walked up to me.

"Hello Jordan, my name is professor McGonagall. I teach transfiguration at Hogwarts. Now if you'll please follow me with your things, we will be on our way" she said to me.

Nodding, I got up and grabbed my trunk and Kyro's cage. She took my trunk from me and held out her arm. Realizing that she wanted to apparate with me, I drew in a steadying breath before I took her arm. Once again it suddenly felt like I was spinning and being stuffed into a small tube. When it stopped and I was able to focus on my surroundings I saw that we were outside a rather large train station.

"King's Cross Station, Jordan. It is packed with muggles, so we shall move quickly to platform 9 and ¾" she answered my unasked question. I followed her up the steps and into the station. The station was packed with people, all scurrying about to catch their train. We weaved through groups of muggles before coming to a wall in between platforms nine and ten.

"Now Jordan, you must walk through that wall there to get onto the Hogwarts train. Best to do it at a bit of a run if your scared" she encouraged me.

My first thought was to laugh, but the look on her face said she was serious and I doubted that this lady every kidded. So I'm supposed to run straight at a wall and magically appear at a nonexistent train platform? Why is everything magic related so mental? I had a feeling I was going to wake up in a hospital in a few days, but I did as was told.

I took off for the wall at a slight jog, closing my eyes right before I hit the wall. But it never came. Coming to a stop, I opened my eyes and once again my jaw hit the floor. I was standing on another platform where a big scarlet red train waited. Everyone around me was wearing robes of different styles and colors. Parents were crying as they hugged their kids good-bye. Some kids were shouting things out of the windows to friends and family. The overall noise level on this platform was unreal.

I quickly worked my through the crowd and carried my trunk and Kyro's cage onto the train. A man dressed in all black robes wordlessly helped me. I nodded a thank you towards him before moving into the train and trying to find a compartment. I found an empty one somewhere towards the back of the train and after only a few moments of struggle I managed to get my trunk and Kyro's cage onto the overhead compartment above my seat.

I sat by the window and stared out at the crowd of people. Parents where yelling trying to get their kids on the train faster. I watched as a rather large family of red-heads appeared at the station and said their good-byes. The short plump woman hugged all of her sons before standing next to her crying daughter. Her daughter seemed more upset that she couldn't go on the train rather than the fact that her brothers were leaving for the year.

Chuckling quietly to myself, I pulled out my book and began to read. Just a few moments later the train blew its whistle, signaling that the train was about to leave. More kids poured onto the train as parents waved. Finally, the train slowly began to pull away from the station. The same red-headed girl ran alongside the train, smiling and waving.

Suddenly, my compartment door was thrown open and a rather skinny and pale boy my age with long dark hair and glasses stood in the doorway.

"Oh, sorry" he said, "I thought this compartment was empty".

"It's okay. You can sit if you want" I replied with a smile.

"Thank you" he responded, before entering and closing the door behind him. After I helped him get his trunk and owl cage stowed away, we both took our seats and stared out the window.

"My name's Jordan. Jordan Bates" I said to him, holding out my hand.

He took my hand in his and said "Harry. Harry Potter".

I had to do a double take because I had read so much about him that I had assumed that he would be older.

Before I could say anything the door slid open once again and a red head appeared in the door. "Anyone sitting there? Everywhere else is full" he asked as he pointed to the seat next to Harry.

Harry shook his head and moved over slightly to make more room for him.

"Hey, Ron." Two twins said from the doorway.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train. Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then".

"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

Ron looked at me and said rather abruptly, "Who are you?".

"Jordan. Jordan Bates" I said again as I help my hand out.

"Ron Weasley" he replied as he shook my hand.

"Is it true? That you really are Harry Potter" Ron blurted out.

Harry merely nodded.

"Oh, I thought maybe Fred and George were joking. Is it true? That you have the.. you know" he said as he pointed to Harry's forehead.

Harry pulled back his bangs and showed us his scar.

Ron stared in wonder as he asked, "So that's where You-Know-Who..."

"Yes" Harry replied, "but I can't remember anything".

"Nothing?" He asked eagerly.

"Well, I remember a lot of green light. But that's about it" Harry supplied.

"Wow" Ron said. He must have then realized that he was still staring because he quickly looked anywhere but where Harry was.

After a few moments Harry and Ron began to talk about their families and Hogwarts. Noticing my silence, Ron asked me, "What about you?".

"What about me?" I replied.

"What's your family like?" he responded.

"I don't know. I never met them. I was raised in America in an orphanage" I stated calmly.

Ron was about to ask something else, but Harry interrupted him. "What house do you think you'll be in?" he asked me.

"Probably Ravenclaw" I answered.

Ron scrunched his face up, like that was the wrong answer.

"My whole family has been in Gryffindor. I expect I'll be there as well" Ron said.

"I just hope I'm not in Slytherin" said Harry.

"Why not?" I asked.

"There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin" Ron stated darkly.

"So?" I asked.

Ron looked at me like I had three heads, but didn't reply.

The two of them continued talking while I read. Occasionally I would nod my head or say 'mhm' as if I was paying attention to their conversation. I mean, I kind of was, but my book on werewolves was far more interesting. After a while I looked out the window and saw that we had left London and were now speeding past fields full of cows and sheep.

"Anything off the cart, dears?" a smiling, dimpled woman asked as she slid back our door.

Harry leapt to his feet and went out into the corridor. I slowly followed behind him, while Ron blushed and remained seated. There were all kinds of candy I had never seen before. There were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things I had never seen before. Harry and I looked at each other before we both grinned and bought some of everything. After we both paid the kind lady, we dumped our haul into our seats and started to eat.

"Hungry?" Ron asked jokingly.

"Starving" Harry said.

Ron began to take out four wrapped sandwiches while he looked at our candy longingly. Harry offered to trade him a pasty for one of his sandwiches. After a couple moments of Ron politely declining, he relented and he and Harry shared his candy. The sandwiches soon lay forgotten on the floor.

"What are these?" Harry asked suddenly, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs.

"They're not really frogs, are they?" I was starting to feel that nothing would surprise me anymore.

"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know. Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect. Famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half- moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache.

"Hey, you got Dumbledore!" I exclaimed.

Harry turned the card over to read something on the back, but when he turned it back over he was gone.

"He's gone!" harry shouted in surprise.

"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."

After Ron helped Harry eat most of his chocolate frogs, Harry picked up his box of every flavor beans. I had been eyeing them carefully, as I saw a couple of strange flavors on the back of the box.

"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor. You know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-flavored one once."

I picked one up carefully and studied it. It was a light shade of red, almost pink, with green flecks on it. I carefully bit the end and tasted it. "Oh, I love watermelon!" I exclaimed.

We had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, and curry. I got grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.

After a while I looked out the window and noticed that we had traded the fields of cows and sheep for dark green hills, twisting rivers, and forests.

There was a knock on our compartment door and a round faced boy who looked quite fearful peered in. "Have you seen a toad?" he asked.

We all shook our heads. Suddenly he cried, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me! Well if you find him let me know" and left.

"I don't know why he's upset" Ron said, "If I had brought a toad I would lose him as soon as I could. Of course, I brought Scabbers here, so I can't really talk". He pulled a sleeping rat out of his pocket and placed him in his lap.

"You'd think he's dead or something. I tried a spell to turn him yellow the other day. I'll show you" he said as he pulled his wand out. It was chipped in places and looked very old.

He had raised his wand and cleared his throat when the door was slid open and a girl stepped in. Neville stood behind her in the corridor.

"Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville lost his" she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth. She was also already wearing her school robes.

"We already told him we haven't seen it" Ron answered gruffly.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Then let's see it" she said as she sat down next to me.

Ron looked surprised for a moment before he said, "Oh, alright then".

He cleared his throat once again and said, ""Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow. Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." Rather humorously nothing happened. His rat remained gray and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard. I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" she said in one breath rather quickly.

"Ron Weasley"

"Jordan Bates"

"Harry Potter"

We all replied.

"Neville Longbottom" Neville called from the corridor.

"Of course, I've read all about you. I picked up a few extra books for some light reading and your in many of them" Hermione replied.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best. I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, taking Neville with her.

"If she's in Ravenclaw with me I think I might just lose my mind" I said with a smile.

Ron and Harry both chuckled. "Good luck with that" Ron said, "She seems like a know it all".

Suddenly Ron asks, "So whats your quidditch team?".

"I'm sorry what?" Harry asked, looking at me for help. I just shrugged.

"You have to be kidding me! Quidditch is the best! Here, I'll explain it for you" and explain it he did. He explained all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking us through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.

Three boys walked in, a short blonde boy, who had a look on his face like everyone should know him and bow before him, who was flanked by two larger boys.

"So is it true?" He asked Harry, "People up and down the train are saying that Harry Potter is in this compartment. It's you, isn't it?".

"Yes" Harry responded.

"This is Crabbe and Goyle" he said, referring to his thickset, mean looking bodyguards. "And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy".

Ron coughed suddenly, trying to hide his chuckle. Malfoy stared daggers at him.

"Think my name is funny do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me that all Weasley's have red hairs, freckles, and more kids than they can afford" he said with a sneer.

He turned back to Harry and said, "You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there" he said as he held out his hand.

Harry looked at his hand, before regarding Draco coolly, "I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thank you".

A pink tinge appeared across Malfoy's pale skin. "You should be careful Potter, or you'll go out the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasley's and Hagrid and it'll rub off on you" he said.

All three of us stood up.

"I'd watch your mouth, Malfoy" I said as I pulled out my wand.

"And who are you?" he asked as if he really didn't care.

"Jordan Bates, head of House Bates. I'd leave now before I have to send a letter to your father" I threatened.

Draco scowled at me before saying, "Come on boys. We were just leaving anyways".

As they closed the door behind them, Ron asked Harry, "Have you met him before?".

Harry told us about his meeting him in Diagon Alley.

"You know his father?" Harry asked me.

"No, but I read a book about wizarding families and their lineages that said I have a distant relation to him. I figured he would recognize my name" I replied.

"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."

"I think we will be there in a few minutes guys. We should put our robes on" I said.

They both nodded and the three of us quickly changed into our robes. A voice suddenly echoed through the train while we were changing, "The train will be arriving in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train. It will be brought to the castle separately".

The train finally stopped and people began pushing towards the doors. Harry and Ron were both shivering in the cold night air, but I didn't mind. I was used to the cold harsh winters of Boston. I pointed out a lamp that was slowly bobbing over the heads of the students.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?" said a deep voice.

A man that was easily fifteen feet tall towered over the students. He had a head full of dark scraggly hair and a bushy black beard. His trench coat was absolutely massive, but barely seemed to touch the ground. "C'mon, follow me. Any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" he called out over the crowd.

We followed Hagrid down a steep, narrow path slipping and stumbling the whole time. It was so dark on either side of the path that it felt like huge black trees surrounded us. Someone sniffed a couple times behind me.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

Everyone looked up and called out, "Ooooooh!" in amazement.

The narrow path suddenly opened onto the edge of a huge black lake. On a cliff high above was a massive castle with many turrets and towers, its windows sparkling in the starry night.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a bunch of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry, Ron, and I were followed into a boat by Neville. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then. FORWARD!"

The little fleet of boats began gliding across the lake, which was smoother than glass. No one said a word as we stared up at the beautiful castle high above us.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; we all bent our heads and the little boats carried us through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. We were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking us right underneath the castle, until we reached a kind of underground harbor, where we climbed out onto a pebbly shore.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" cried Neville happily, holding out his hands. Then we began climbing up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

We climbed up a set of stone stairs and stopped right at a pair of the largest oak doors I had ever seen. Hagrid knocked three times on them. The doors swung open immediately, revealing the same witch who had taken me to King's Cross, professor McGonagall.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here" she replied.

She pulled the door wide and let us follow her in. The entrance hall was so large you could easily have fit my entire orphanage in it. The walls were lit with torches just like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent polished marble staircase on our left led up to the upper floors.

We followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Through the massive doors on our right I could hear the drone of hundreds of voices. The rest of the school must already be in there. Professor McGonagall showed us to a small, empty chamber off the hall. We stood in the small room crowded together tightly and waited for instructions.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school" she said to us.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

In the darkness someone on my right asked, "How are we sorted into our houses?".

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking." That must have been Ron answering.

"I'm pretty sure there's just a hat that reads our mind and puts us in the right house" I said aloud.

"How are you sure?" someone on my left asked.

"I read about it in Hogwarts, A History" I replied.

Then something happened that made me jump about a foot in the air. Several people behind me screamed.

"What the?" I gasped. So did the people around me.

About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost. I say, what are you all doing here?

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years. Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded wordlessly.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form an orderly single-file line and follow me" McGonagall said.

Forming a line, we followed McGonagall back out of the chamber and through the large double doors into the Great Hall.

There were four long tables where the students sat, talking wildly to each other. At the far end of the room, raised above the other tables slightly, was a table perpendicular to the rest where the teachers sat quietly, watching us. On the walls were dozens of torches and high above us were thousands of floating candles. McGonagall lead us to the other end of the hall, where we turned and faced the students.

Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, I looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. I heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."

Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of us and placed an old, battered hat on top of it.

Everyone stared at the hat, and for a few seconds there was complete silence. Suddenly, A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat began to sing:

 _"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

 _But don't judge on what you see,_

 _I'll eat myself if you can find A smarter hat than me._

 _You can keep your bowlers black,_

 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_

 _For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat And I can cap them all._

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_

 _The Sorting Hat can't see,_

 _So try me on and I will tell you_

 _Where you ought to be._

 _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_

 _Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart;_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuffis are true_

 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

 _if you've a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning,_

 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin_

 _You'll make your real friends,_

 _Those cunning folk use any means_

 _To achieve their ends._

 _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

 _And don't get in a flap!_

 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause,

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table.

"Bates, Jordan!" McGonagall called.

I calmly walked over to the hat, put it on and sat in the stool. Suddenly I heard a voice in my mind.

"Ah! What do we have here?" it said to me.

"A very strong mind indeed, and such a thirst for knowledge! You want to be the top wizard in your class, eh? That's quite the ambition you got there. Perhaps Slytherin would be best for you, huh?"

"NO!" I yelled mentally at the hat. "I don't think I'd be happy in Slytherin".

"No? Well, I daresay Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are out. Your mind is far too sharp and outweighs your other characteristics. Perhaps Ravenclaw?" it asked me.

"Yeah sure, anything but the morons in Slytherin" I pleaded.

"Very well" the hat said.

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat shouted out.

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with me as I joined them at an empty section in the table.

The sorting continued on, a few students joining me at Ravenclaw. Finally McGonagall shouted, "Potter, Harry!".

As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?".

"The Harry Potter?".

He quickly put the hat on his head and the whole hall sat in anticipating silence for a good five minutes.

Finally, the hat called out, "GRYFFINDOR!".

He took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. Harry was getting the loudest cheering yet. One student got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

When the sorting finally finished, I was joined at the Ravenclaw table with Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Terry Boot, and Kevin Entwhistle for the boys and Padma Patil, Mandy Brocklehurst, Su Li, Lisa Turpin, and Morag Macdougal for the girls.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there. "Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Most began clapping or cheering. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or not.

Suddenly, the dishes and plates in front of him were now piled with all kinds of food. I had never seen so much food at one dinner: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

I piled my plate with a little bit of everything and dug in. While I wasn't attacking my food like I hadn't eaten in ages, I definitely was not eating with proper table manners. As we ate, we talked about our excitement to finally be at Hogwarts and what we looked forward to most. It was no surprise that everyone at the table anticipated learning as much as we could.

Soon, the food vanished only to be replaced with all kinds of dessert. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding, and lots more.

As we ate dessert our talk turned to that of our families.

Anthony, Michael, Su, and Mandy are half-bloods. Terry and Padma are pure-bloods. Kevin, Morag, and Lisa are muggle born. Not that that really mattered to me, but it was interesting to know.

"What about you, Jordan?" Michael asked me.

"I'm a pure-blood" I responded.

"What do your parents do?" Kevin asked me curiously.

"I'm not sure. They both died when I was really young in the war. I was sent to live in an American orphanage" I replied.

"Oh, sorry mate" Kevin said.

"It's okay" I replied, giving him a halfhearted smile.

I turned to one of the older students at the table and began asking him questions about classes and how quickly we progress. After he answered a couple of my questions the desserts suddenly disappeared while I was in the middle of a bowl of pudding. Grumbling to myself, I looked up towards the teachers table and watched Dumbledore get to his feet.

"Ahem. Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Gryffindor table. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

I chuckled to myself, but very few others found that amusing. I turned to the older student, a third year named Roger, to ask if he was kidding or not.

"Must not be. It's odd though. Usually he tells us what would cause the painful death as a warning" I'm not sure if his response made me feel better or worse.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. I noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed as everyone stood up. Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

And the school bellowed:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot.

Everyone sang at different paces. I just stood there and quietly mumbled the words to myself. Everyone began finishing at different times, until only the Weasley twins were left singing to a slow drum march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand, a huge smile on his face, and when they finished he clapped louder than anyone else.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Suddenly everyone stood up and began moving towards their houses. Prefects were calling for first years to follow them. We followed the prefects to the fifth floor on the west side of the castle. At the top of a tight spiraling staircase was a plain wooden door. It had no door handle or eye hole, but just a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.

One of the prefects knocked it against the door and it asked us, "What do an island and the letter T have in common". The prefects thought for a moment and one answered, "They are both in the middle of water".

The door suddenly swung open and allowed us to enter. "That's really cool" I said as I turned to face the other first years.

"What happens if you can't solve the riddle" Padma asked a prefect.

He smiled and said, "You have to wait for someone to come and solve it".

We looked at each other and gulped. It would suck if you were in a rush and really needed to get something from your room but couldn't figure out the riddle.

We entered the common room and we all looked around, wide eyed. It is a wide, circular room with arched windows hung with blue and bronze silks and a midnight blue carpet covered in stars, which is reflected onto the domed ceiling. There was an excellent view of the school grounds, including the lake, Forbidden Forest, Quidditch pitch, Herbology gardens and the surrounding mountains.

The room is furnished with tables, chairs, and bookcases; and by the door leading up to the dormitories stands a tall statue of Rowena Ravenclaw made of white marble.

Most of the older students found a chair and hung around in the common room, but we decided to go to bed. We easily found our dormitories and said goodnight to the girls. Five four-poster beds were evenly spaced through the room, each with a nightstand. They were hung with deep blue, velvet curtains and embroidered in silver. Our trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, we pulled on our pajamas and fell into bed.

I slept a very peaceful, dreamless sleep that night. I was one of the first to wake up, and made my way to the showers. After showering and changing, I made my way back to my room and grabbed my wand and my book bag. Only Kevin was still in bed, but I think it was more out of not wanting to get up than being asleep.

I made my way down to breakfast and found that I was one of the first there. I took a seat near where I sat last night. After a quick yawn, I grabbed some eggs, toast, and bacon and began to eat. As I ate more and more people flowed into the Great Hall.

After a while, our Head of House professor Flitwick began to pass out our schedule for this year. When I got mine, I noticed that there were nine 45 minute slots every day, with lunch before the last three. Most days we had free time between lunch and dinner, except for Mondays. Our latest class was once a week at 10 at night on Wednesday. We had to go to the astronomy tower and look at the stars.

"Look at that!" Michael was saying happily. "Our last three slots are free time four days of the week!" He and Kevin high-fived.

"I'd bet my wand that we will be doing homework that entire time" I said.

"Oh don't be such a party pooper" Kevin complained.

I just chuckled and continued to look over my schedule. Most of my classes were with the Hufflepuff first years, except for Herbology with the Slytherins. Too bad, I was hoping to have become better friends with Harry and Ron.

Soon it was time to head to our first class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Everyone was looking forward to this class, but it turned out to be a bit of a joke. First of all, his room smelled of garlic, which the older students said was to ward off a vampire he had met in Romania that he was afraid was going to come back and get him. He had told us that his turban had been a gift from an African prince for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, though I wasn't sure if I believed him. When Anthony asked how he fought off the zombie, he turned pink and started talking about the weather. Also, his turban had a horrible smell to it like he had stuffed it full of garlic to protect himself wherever he went.

After DADA was History of Magic. It turned out to be the most boring class. It was taught by a ghost Professor Binns who apparently had went to sleep one night and gotten up to teach the next day, leaving his body behind. He droned on and on while everyone frantically scribbled down notes and names like Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball. We got a break for a while before lunch, so we hung out in the library to get our homework done for History of Magic.

After lunch was a quick class in Charms with professor Flitwick. He was so small that he had to stand on a pile of books in order to see us over his desk. All we did that class was take notes on how to cast the levitation charm.

After that was Transfiguration with professor McGonagall. As soon as we sat down in her class, she gave us a lecture on how dangerous and advanced transfiguration is and that she would not tolerate any funny business in her class. After showing us that we could some day learn to change a desk into a pig, which I thought was pretty cool, we started taking lengthy and complicated notes on how to change a matchstick into a needle. We spent a short amount of time attempting to perform the transfiguration, but so far only a few of us, Michael and I, managed to change it at all.

Our last class of the day was astronomy with Professor Sinistra. We were told that our late night class would have us observe the sky with telescopes, learning the movements of the stars, planets and their moon/s while our daytime classes we would learn the names of them. After Astronomy we went back to the common room, Michael answered the riddle correctly for us, and after a quick celebration of not being locked out in our first day we quickly dropped our bags in our rooms headed down for dinner.

We soon got into a pattern of going to classes, doing homework in between when we could, and then hanging out in the common room at night. All ten of us seemed to really get along, though I think I became closest with Terry. He and I sat next to each other in every class and at all of our meals and were constantly joking around, trying to lighten the mood. For the most part though we conversed between all ten of us.

The older students thought it was strange that all ten of us were so close, but we thought it was weirder that they all stayed in groups of two or three. I also noticed that it was rarely seen for anyone to hang out with or talk with someone outside their year on a regular basis. So much for the whole "Your house will be like your family" speech we got from McGonagall.

As the days turned into weeks, I found that I was easily grasping the learning in all of my classes, especially DADA, Charms, and Potions. It was becoming clear that Anthony, Hermione, Padma, and I were top of our class, but nobody knew who was number one. You would think that being Ravenclaws we would heavily discuss it and be very competitive with each other about it, but we weren't and we didn't. We helped each other in every class and made sure that nobody was left behind in their studies.

There was an awful lot of talk going on about a break in at Gringotts. Most seemed to believe that the goblins lied about nothing being stolen. I heard a Slytherin second year saying that someone had stolen over a million galleons in the blink of an eye. A pair of red-headed twins from Gryffindor reckon that the goblins made the story up so people would try their luck at stealing something. Personally, I didn't believe any of their ridiculous stories.

There was an interesting rumor that seemed to hold some truth to it floating around. Terry had excitedly told me one day that Harry Potter was going to be playing seeker for Gryffindor, despite being a first-year. There were quite a few witnesses to Harry's daring dive to catch Neville's Remembrall, thought each time it was told the tale grew wilder. That made me skeptical, but McGonagall definitely seemed very smug lately.

It wasn't until Halloween that things started to get really interesting. 

* * *

**Sorry again for how long this took, but writing these chapters is very boring and bland for me because I'm not really story telling. It feels more like I'm writing a summary of the books from my characters perspective. But I do promise things will get interesting soon! I have been ironing out what exactly I want to happen for the rest of the book, and feel confident that I have most of it down. Now I just have to put it all together. Hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter! Keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter! See you then!**


	3. Chapter 3

Wow it took me a lot longer than I thought it would to get this chapter out. Regardless, here we are at chapter 3! Enjoy!

Disclaimer -

I do not own anything Harry Potter. All ideas, characters, places, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling

* * *

It felt like only a few days, but it had indeed been nearly two months since I arrived at Hogwarts. The amount of homework we were assigned was not only increasing in number but in difficulty as well, especially from Professor Snape. Though he was hard on everyone, I felt bad for the poor Gryffindors because they got it the worse. If one so much as sneezed in his class they'd get detention for a week and lose points. Most everyone, except for the Slytherins, remained as quiet and still in his class as possible.

The lessons we were being taught also started to get more difficult, but I welcomed the challenge. I couldn't wait until we got to the really advanced magic, and at the pace we were currently going it was going to take forever. I was going to have to look into finding somewhere private to study more advanced material.

The smell of pumpkins wafted through the halls on the day of Halloween. It was obvious that something special was being planned for the feast because we were all pretty much kicked out of the Great Hall by Filch right after lunch. Excitement was in the air as everyone discussed what they were doing in there.

"How cool would it be if we didn't have any classes today and they set up a bunch of haunted houses and rides for us" I thought aloud whilst daydreaming in Charms.

Terry snorted beside me, "All they would have to do is put a bunch of pictures of Snape everywhere".

Anthony and Michael laughed loudly at that, before returning to their practicing. Flitwick had finally started teaching us the Levitation charm, something we had all looked forward to for quite some time. Terry and I had already gotten it down, as I was lazily wafting it across the room up by the ceiling. Anthony was trying to coach Michael into doing it properly, but so far Michael had only managed a small flutter.

"You've almost got it!" Anthony had exclaimed happily as we left the room. Michael gave a weak smile, but his eyes betrayed to us his determination.

The smell of food greeted us at the doors to the Great Hall. Inside Jack-o-Lanterns were scattered about on the tables and some floated aimlessly overhead. Large groups of bats flew through the air, occasionally gliding just a foot over the heads of the students.

The food appeared suddenly on the golden plates just as it had on the first day of term. A larger than usual assortment of food was scattered across the tables.

Everyone was in the middle of digging in when the doors to the Great Hall were violently thrown open. Professor Quirrell burst through the doors sprinting, terror clear on his face.

When Quirrell reached Dumbledore's chair he leaned heavily against the table and said, "Troll...in the dungeon….thought you ought to know" before collapsing to the floor in a faint.

There was a slight moments pause where everyone stared at each other wide-eyed. And then suddenly, as if it were planned, everyone jumped out of their chairs and began  
panicking. Dumbledore had to fire off a few firecrackers from his wand in order to regain control of everyone.

"Prefects, lead your houses back to the dormitories" he shouted over us.

Our prefects quickly lined us up and began marching us in a double-filed line back to our house. There was very little hesitation in answering the riddle and soon we were all in the common room, awaiting Professor Flitwick.

He soon climbed through the door and helped set up some platters of food for us to continue eating. Many of the older students tried getting some information out of him, but all he said was, "Everything is under control".

We mostly ate in silence, the joy and excitement of the day seemed to have evaporated from the air.

There was a lot of speculation as to how the troll got in, but nobody could get a straight answer from a teacher. Most of them just told us to not worry about it and to instead focus on our schoolwork. A pretty wild rumor was going around that Ron Weasley and Harry Potter had taken down the troll by themselves, saving Hermione Granger in the process. Though there were many different versions of the story going around, it was clear that whatever happened had created a strong friendship between the three. They were now seldom seen alone.

* * *

The weather seemed to get worse with every passing day of November. It soon got so cold outside that you had to wear multiple jackets to stay warm. The mountains in the distance began to cover with snow, the lake almost seemed to have frozen over, and every morning the grass was tipped with frost.

On the bright side, with the poor weather also came Quidditch season. Though never having watched the sport in the past, I was very excited to cheer on my house. The first game of the season took place on the second week of November, Gryffindor versus Slytherin. The morning of the match brought forth a level of excitement and anticipation that I had never seen before. Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were getting into the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry.

"I bet Slytherin mops the floors with them" Anthony was saying at breakfast.

"Harry Potter is supposed to be really good, though" Michael responded.

"Have you even seen him fly?" Padma quipped.

"Well...no. But he wouldn't be on the team as a first year if he wasn't really good" Michael returned.

"True, but he has no experience playing the game. Hell, he didn't even know about it until the train ride to school!" I stated jokingly.

"You're not serious" Morag asked.

"Oh, I am. Ron gave him a lecture for nearly an hour on Quidditch" I laughed.

"It doesn't look too good for Gryffindor then, huh?" Terry asked with a smirk.

"As much as I'd like to see Slytherin get crushed, I'm not confident Gryffindor can beat them" I stated.

"And when did you become such a Quidditch expert?" Mandy teased.

"Never said I was" I replied, sticking my tongue out at her.

As we finished breakfast we filed into the stream of students that were making their way down to the Quidditch pitch. We climbed into the Ravenclaw section of the seats and waited for the game to begin. The Gryffindor and Slytherin houses were making so much noise I could barely hear myself think.

Madam Hooch finally made her way onto the pitch, where she stood waiting with her broom and a trunk.

"Whats in the trunk?" Lisa asked.

"The Quidditch balls, of course" Michael responded.

Just then the two teams were welcomed to the pitch by the cries of their houses. I hadn't thought it was possible, but everyone managed to get even louder than before.

It was then that I noticed the giant red and gold lettered banner that read "Potter for President" flying high above the heads of the Gryffindor crowd. The captains finally shook hands, followed by a short speech from Madam Hooch, and took off into the air.

A young voice, couldn't have been more than a third year, began commentating, ""And the quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor. What an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too..."

"Jordan!" a professor could be heard yelling over the microphone.

"Sorry, professor" Jordan replied and went back to commentating the match.

It really was an impressive match. Possession of the quaffle was being traded back and forth thanks to some outstanding plays from the beaters. However, I was watching Harry from the start. I was really interested to see just how well he could fly. All he had done so far was fly high above the match and a couple of loop the loops after Gryffindor has scored first.

The excitement started to increase tenfold when one of the Slytherin chasers, Pucey I think Jordan said his name was, suddenly dropped the quaffle. Harry burst into action, chasing down what had to be the snitch. The Slytherin chaser was hot on his heels though. Harry began to speed up and reaching out a hand when suddenly Marcus Flint, the Slytherin team captain, purposefully flew in Harry's way, nearly knocking Harry off his broom. Gryffindor was awarded a penalty shot, but the snitch was lost in all the confusion.

Play resumed with Gryffindor in possession. It was a few minutes later when Harry gave a sudden lurch after dodging another bludger. Harry was slowly rising higher away from the game, jerking and twisting as he went. It appeared as if he had lost control of his broom.

"Look at Harry!" I yelled and pointed upwards.

People noticed my pointing and looked up, more cries and fingers were pointed at Harry. Almost everyone in the stands was watching in fear as Harry's broom acted like a bucking bull, trying to throw him off. A cry rang out from the crowd when Harry was finally thrown from his broom and was dangling from it by one hand.

The Weasley twins were trying to grab harry and pull him to safety on one of their brooms, but every time they got near him his broom would lurch even higher. They finally gave up and took to circling below him, as if to catch him if he fell. Marcus Flint had taken the quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing.

Suddenly, Harry managed to climb back onto his broom. He quickly took off towards the ground. He glided a foot above the pitch and suddenly clapped his outstretched hand to his mouth, falling from his broom in a tumble.

"He looks like he's going to be sick!" Lisa cried.

Harry finally coughed up something golden into his hands. He held it high with one hand and screamed, "I've got the snitch!"

The crowd went nuts. Marcus Flint was furious, screaming that "He didn't catch it! He nearly swallowed it!". It didn't matter though, Gryffindor had won 170 points to 60.

Everyone in the stands, besides Slytherin, began cheering madly. It seemed everyone wanted Slytherin to lose.

Everyone poured out of the stands and went back up to the castle. Most of the Gryffindor team was being carried on the shoulders of their house, everyone except Harry.

* * *

The Christmas holidays were finally almost here. One morning in mid December the castle woke up to find itself surrounded by several feet of snow. The lake had finally frozen over, and someone had bewitched several snowballs to bounce off the back of Professor Quirrell's head all day. Very few owls managed to battle their way through the storm to deliver mail that morning, but somehow Kyro managed to deliver the muggle sports magazine that I had a subscription for. I had taken to a sport called Basketball while living in the orphanage, and the magazine provided the only way for me to keep up with my favorite team, the Boston Celtics. After I untied the magazine from Kyro, and gave him some bacon and water, he was carried away by Hagrid to be nursed back to health.

"Strong bird you have here" Hagrid had said when he had picked him up.

Everyone eagerly anticipated the holidays to start. Though the common room always had a roaring fire to keep it warm, the corridors had become cold and drafty and the bitter wind outside rattled the windows of the classrooms. Professor Snape's dungeon was by far the worst. Our breath rose in a mist in front of us and we all nearly hugged our cauldrons to stay warm.

One morning, a week before the holiday began, Professor Flitwick came down the table asking for whomever would be staying at the castle this Christmas. To my surprise, Lisa and Mandy would be staying with me at the castle.

"My parents go on a long skiing trip every winter holiday. I usually end up having to stay at my neighbor's house for most of it" Mandy told us.

"Mine will be away on business the entire break" Lisa replied.

They had both looked at me questioningly, wondering why I would be staying at the castle for the holidays. When I remained silent they finally remembered that I was an orphan and they looked apologetic.

Over the following days Hagrid could be seen lugging giant fir trees around the castle. They were so wide that they took up most of the corridor, and so tall all you could see of Hagrid were his feet.

On the last day before holiday, the Great Hall looked extremely festive. Giant fir trees, at least twelve of them, were scattered throughout the hall. Some sparkled with tiny icicles, others glittered with hundreds of tiny candles.

When the holidays did finally start, and we had said goodbye to our friends, the three of us nearly had the common room to ourselves. Almost every student in the castle had went home for the holidays, Gryffindor having the most students as the entire Weasley clan had stayed. We got to sit in the best chairs by the fire, roasting anything we could on sticks.

We didn't talk about schoolwork or anything related to school. We talked about our past, about our families and friends back home. We also talked about our futures, about things we wanted to learn in the coming years and what we wanted to be when we grew up. The three of us shared a love for DADA and potions, so it came as no surprise when we all wanted to be Aurors.

Christmas morning finally came around, and to my surprise I had quite a few presents at the foot of my bed. Scooping them up and carrying them down to the common room, the girls soon joined me.

"Merry Christmas Jordan!" they both greeted me with a hug.

"Merry Christmas" I returned with a smile.

The three of us quickly began tearing into our presents. I had gotten a box of chocolate frogs from Lisa, a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans from Terry, an advanced potions book from Michael, and a book that contained many fantasy novels from Mandy. We thanked each other for the presents and began cleaning up.

We were just about to leave for breakfast when I noticed a silver wrapped box that somehow had gotten tucked underneath one of the couches. Picking it up it read:

To Jordan,

From A Friend

"Who's that from?" Lisa asked.

"Don't know, it just says 'A Friend'" I replied.

"Well open it!" Mandy cried excitedly.

I opened it up to reveal a framed picture of about twenty or so people, smiling and laughing together. I recognized my parents in the front row holding hands. A note was tucked into the wrapping. It read:

Order of the Pheonix, Christmas 1980. This photo was taken just weeks before your father was killed.

Tearing up at the letter, I looked one more time at the photo. My parents looked extremely happy, smiling and laughing with their friends. This must have been one of those increasingly rare good times during the war.

I quickly went upstairs and placed the picture on my nightstand before rejoining the girls in the common room.

"Let's go eat. I'm starving" I said with a chuckle.

As they neared the Great Hall, they saw the Weasley's and Harry also headed for dinner.

"Hey Harry!" I called out. They all turned to look at us as we caught up to them.

"Hey Jordan! Merry Christmas" Ron replied.

"Merry Christmas to you too!" I said with a smile.

After a quick round of introductions we made our way to the Great Hall, chatting about the presents we had gotten. As we entered the Great Hall one of the twins, Fred I think if  
the F on his sweater was any indication, turned and said, "We are going to have a snowball fight after we eat. Would you like to join us?"

I turned and looked at the girls with a grin. They both laughed and said, "We'd love too" together.

That dinner was by far the most fun I have ever had at a dinner. The food was absolutely amazing; roast turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, hundreds of boats of  
thick gravy, all kinds of delicious vegetables, and stacks of wizard crackers everywhere. After we had eaten, we began to open some of the crackers. When you open one it goes off like a cannon and throws out a great cloud of blue smoke. I had gotten a black pirate captain's hat with a skull and crossbones on the front, my own set of wizards chess pieces, and from one burst a flock of beautiful white doves who soared above the tables.

As the Weasley's began to get up we followed them and Harry outside where we split up into teams. I thought we were about to have a fun, laid back snowball fight. It however turned into a free-for-all war complete with snow forts and bewitched snowballs the size of basketballs. Soon everyone was freezing and soaked to the bone. We called it quits, thanked them for the invitation, and then made our way back to the Ravenclaw common room to warm up by the fire. We were too exhausted to do much more than laugh about the day, and soon I felt so tired that I had to go to bed or else I'd sleep in that armchair all night.

I spent most of the days wandering the castle, looking for somewhere I could study without interruption or being found. I would join Lisa and Mandy for meals and occasionally we would walk the grounds until we got too cold to continue. At nights after dinner we would play wizards chess, though Lisa quickly decided she didn't like it. Soon enough the  
Christmas holiday passed and everyone returned to the castle. We all caught up with each other over dinner that night and soon went to bed, dreading classes the following morning.

* * *

 **I know, it's a little short but I felt like this was a good spot to leave things off. There were a couple of time skips in this chapter, which i usually try to avoid, but I think the first three years are going to be a little accelerated because I always felt that they were the more boring in the series. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and as always I'd love it if you left a review and told me what you think. See you soon!**


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